This would save young Americans from going into crippling debt, but it would also make a university degree completely unaffordable for most. However, in the age of the Internet, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t get an education.
Consider the long term impact of this. There are a lot of different ways such a situation could go, for better and for worse.
In general, I’m opposed to the idea. College professors don’t work for free, and colleges have to pay them. Like it or not, we live in a capitalist society, and everyone needs to be paid. You could raise taxes and fund college publicly, but then you’re just passing off the cost of a college education to the taxpayers.
What does need to happen is a tighter regulation of tuition fees. A student should be able to take out a student loan, work a minimum wage job to pay for rent and personal expenses, and be able to pay off their student loan within a few years of graduation. The problem right now is that even if a college student manages to get a job in their field immediately after school, they’re stuck paying student loans for a decade or more. 50 years ago, you could work a job flipping burgers, pay for school, and be firmly on your feet a few years after you get your degree. I went to college about 20 years ago, and tuition fees have just about doubled since then. The cost of higher education has far outpaced the average income of a college student.
Nobody should get a free ride; students should pay for school, but they shouldn’t be in crippling debt afterwards. There needs to be legislation that forces the cost of education to fit with the minimum wage.
Why?
If you send someone to school for free, somebody is still paying for it. Use childhood education for example; property owners pay for schools with their property taxes, regardless of whether or not they have children in school.
People should pay for themselves, but the cost of education needs to be reasonable enough that they can.
Why have tuition fees doubled? Where is that money going?
I think the answer to this is to make more community colleges offer four year degrees. They are mainly funded through property taxes just like grade school and the professors get paid just fine. $300 per class is a reasonable fee for students.
Professors don’t make up near as much of the bill as the administrators and coaches that pull down 7-figure salaries. There’s almost as much bloat in the US University system as in US Healthcare. The answer to both is the same: they should ideally be free. Failing that, it should be illegal for either to be profitable businesses.